CrossFit Hero Month Challenge

What is Hero month challenge?

Goal was to do at least one Hero WOD in each training session for one month. Hero WODs are usually longer and more difficult than regular CrossFit WODs we do every day. All these WODs are also named after fallen heroes and are usually done to honor these people and some of them are even done as part of fundraising projects like Hotshots 19.

Why?

I saw Hero month challenge last year on Chris Spealler’s blog and I have finally decided to give it a shot. I am making my own programming with only 1 WOD / day with some strength or accessory training before or after WOD so when I decided to start Hero month I don’t needed to change many things.

Exceptations

4-5 Hero WODs / week

Strength or accessory training before every WOD

Get used to longer and heavier workouts

Reality

I am used to do Hero WODs from time to time but doing them multiple times per week is much harder than I excepted. As I said I though I would be able to do 4-5 Hero WODs per week but at the end of month I have done only 3-4 Hero WODs per week because I was destroyed by these workouts.

My main focus was to choose Hero WODs that I have never done before, I’ve only repeated 3 out of 17 Heroes. I’ve also try to pick the ones that have the movements that I haven’t done in last 2 workouts. For example Jason consists of total of 50 muscle ups so I avoided muscle ups in the WODs for few next trainings.

Usually my training session consists of strength training and 1 WOD (metcon), I thought that I will continue with this scheme during Hero month but most of the training sessions I had to forget about doing strength training before WOD. All I did before WOD was just warm up on the movements that were in the Hero WOD. If I were doing strength session before all Heroes I would have to switch to only 2-3 Hero WODs per week because I will have hard time to recover.

On other hand focusing only on one Hero WOD per day and nothing else was just enough. Some Hero WODs were pretty hard with heavy weights or difficult gymnastic movements and my strength is on about the same level as was before Hero month.

It was great experience, there were only few Hero WODs that were shorter than 20 minutes and I had really hard time to recover after some of them and I had to take day off instead of doing only light training as I am used to if I am not fully recovered.

I have also noticed that many Hero WODs are focused on heavy cleans, heavy squats, a lot of pull ups/muscle ups or running, so my quads and back muscles had much harder time to recover while my shoulders or abs were still ready and full of strength.

Was the Hero month great idea?

I think it was because it challenged me in slightly different way than I am used to and I was glad for every rest day I had but on other hand I won’t recommend anyone to do it for more than one month because WODs are heavily focused on legs and back muscles while they forget about shoulder/chest/triceps and abs (except few Heroes).

Doing +20 minutes WODs almost every training session was very exhausting and right now I am back to my regular training and I am again enjoying simple couplets/triplets that takes 5-15 minutes with occasional long WOD from time to time.

Hero month also made me to do some thing in the WODs that I’ve never thought before like 8 rounds of 26 Rings Push Ups in Gator or going for multiple reps with almost 1 rep max of Deadlift in Marston, RX weight was 405 lbs but I had scale down to 365 lbs.

Top 3 Most Challenging Hero WODs From My Hero Month

3rd place Wittman

7 Rounds of
15 American KB Swings 1.5 pood
15 Power Cleans 95 lbs
15 Box Jumps 24″Wittman was my first choice during Hero Month and it was one of the most intensive WODs I’ve ever done. All movements in Wittman are relatively easy and there is just enough reps on each of them so you can keep moving without stopping. Ability to move the weight all the time in so many reps makes the Wittman one of the most intensive WODs I’ve ever done, there is just no time for rest and when I finished it I couldn’t move for 5 minutes.My time: 14:52

2nd place Helton

3 Rounds of
800m Run
30 Dumbell Squat Cleans 2 x 50 lbs
30 BurpeesWhen I saw this WOD I knew that dumbbell squat cleans would hurt but during WOD it was just different story. I would rather do 30 squat cleans with 200 lbs than doing them with pair of 50 lbs dumbbells, it was one of the hardest exercises I have ever done and I was really looking forward for burpees and run during. I think that these squat cleans were so hard because I am not used on the dumbbells during WODs and now I have motivation to them at least once per month.My time: 28:08

1st place Klepto

4 Rounds of
27 Box Jumps 24″
20 Burpees
11 Squat Cleans, 145 lbsWhen I first saw Klepto I knew it would hurt but I thought that Klepto is just another classic CrossFit triplet which I am doing all the time. Maybe it was so hard because I did Jason day before (which had 250 air squats) or because of the combination of the movements but I was “dying” since first squat cleans even though it’s only 145 lbs and I am used to do 135 lbs squat cleans during WODs even in higher reps. Klepto was really painful experience, I wanted to go faster but my heart rate and my quads just didn’t let me to.My time: 18:26

My Hero Month, How I Did?

I wanted to start on 1st October but I had chance to visit gym during 30th September so I started my hero month little earlier but I have done my last workout on 31st October.

I have done total of 17 hero WODs during 32 days and here you can check what was my times/scores: